Collective flow in (anti)proton-proton collision at Tevatron and LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates the presence of collective flow in (anti)proton-proton collisions at Tevatron and LHC energies, suggesting that hydrodynamical effects may be relevant even in small systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates that incorporating collective flow into the EPOS model improves the description of proton-proton collision data at Tevatron and LHC energies.

Findings

Tevatron data are better described with flow included

Hydrodynamical effects may be relevant in small systems

Model extrapolation aligns with early LHC data

Abstract

Collective flow as a consequence of hydrodynamical evolution in heavy ion collisions is intensively studied by theorists and experimentalists to understand the behavior of hot quark matter. Due to their large mass, heavy ions suffer collective effects even at low (SPS) or intermediate energies (RHIC). In case of light systems such as (anti)proton-proton interactions, collective effects was not expected. Within a global model such as EPOS, where light and heavy systems are treated using the same physics, it appears that Tevatron data are better described if a flow is introduced. Then the extrapolation to LHC can easily be done and we can compare to first data from ATLAS experiment.